President Obama is getting an earful about taking a family vacation from some of his Republican rivals. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Obama has no business spending 10 days on swanky Martha’s Vineyard while the country’s struggling and 14 million Americans are out of work, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney complained.
“If you’re the President of the United States, and the nation is in crisis, and we’re in a jobs crisis right now, then you shouldn’t be out vacationing,” Romney told Chicago’s WLS radio.
Never mind that Romney is heading to the island for a $2,500-per-head fund-raiser on Aug. 27, and that his travel plans include stops to raise more dough at swanky vacation getaways like Nantucket and Cape Cod.
Romney has made so many trips to his $10 million vacation pad on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee that Politico.com has dubbed his frequent absences from the campaign trail the “Mittness Protection Program.”
Romney also owns a $12 million beachfront getaway in La Jolla, Calif., north of San Diego.
By contrast, Obama rents the 28-acre estate his family stays at on Martha’s Vineyard – which costs up to $40,000 per week, Politico reported.
Unlike Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who also got grief for vacationing at the family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, Obama doesn’t own a vacation home.
Another GOP contender, Newt Gingrich, flat out insisted Obama “ought to cancel his vacation – period.”
Then Gingrich announced he’s taking his floundering campaign to Hawaii this weekend – which happens to coincide with his 11th wedding anniversary.
Key members of Gingrich’s campaign staff quit in June after their boss took off on a Greek cruise with his wife.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the American people don’t begrudge Obama a family vacation.
Besides, said Carney, “there’s no such thing as a presidential vacation – the presidency travels with you.”
